The strangeness of North Korea’s bid for the World Cup trophy carried on into their games when a paid conductor actually directed the North Korean fans to cheer at certain times. Controversy soon arose when news outlets discovered that a good amount of the “fans” were really Chinese actors and dancers willing to lend a hand to their ally. Kim Jong-Il, or the “Dear Leader”, even claimed that he was telepathically communicating with the coach to give advice on game tactics.

Despite the cheerful North Korean fans and the team van bearing the words “1966 again”, the team faced its inevitable and embarrassing 7 to 0 defeat against Portugal. After numerous complications with Fifa, various altercations with the press, and a game strategy devised by a totalitarian dictator, the North Koreans finally headed home to a famine that only worsened in their absence.

If anything, their hopeful and spirited entry into the World Cup only emphasized the listless population under Kim Jong-Il’s regime. On the same day North Korea qualified for the competition, the government announced that it would end all food rations to its people; it asked for all villages to become self-sufficient. However, given that many families and small communities are located far away from any sort of market or urban outlet, the upcoming winter will definitely prove disastrous to a population already racked by poverty and starvation.

Anticipating a violent response to such a drastic measure, the government already initiated the confiscation of small potential weapons such as knives and also tightened the border to prevent possible defectors from escaping to South Korea.

The Pyongyang government in North Korea abandoned the food crisis when its two largest donors, South Korea and China, refused further continuation of aid (South Korea cut off aid when North Korea sank a South Korean ship in March, killing 46 people).

North Korea, in hopes that China will be as obliging as they had once been during the World Cup, has appealed to Chinese companies for the provision of food, grain, and business. Some people, realizing their poverty, have already escaped into China. Reports from such defectors show that the situation back at home is worsening every day.

Despite North Korea’s past and ongoing efforts, humanitarian aid toward North Korea has historically always been sparse because of Kim Jong-Il’s hostile regime. With few allies to sustain it and economic isolation from the rest of the world, North Korea seems to be facing a famine as devastating as the one that wiped out hundreds of thousands in the 1990s.

A little over two months has passed since oil began to surge into the Gulf of Mexico from the oil well, Deepwater Horizon, yet the end of the mess is not even in the foreseeable future. The only other topic mentioned in the news as consistently was Michael Jackson’s death. 

Finger pointing is so excessive at this point that the arms of the major parties involved are getting tangled, like in a game of Twister. The United States government is blaming BP; BP is blaming the owner and operator of the rig, Transocean; Halliburton, the company that worked on the well on April 19 is also being thrown into the mix. As of now, the media is looking cross-eyed at the situation.

Most fingers are directed at BP, and not without reason. Simply compare BP to other oil companies. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), BP has the most enforcement citations of any other company, and has been fined for tens of millions of dollars —more precisely, 87,430,000 dollars. When searching “Exxon Mobil fines” on the OSHA website, on the other hand, no documents are found.

This situation can be compared to the Exxon Valdez spill back in 1989. Then, there was a limited amount of spilt oil that affected the area. When 11 million gallons of oil entered the ocean in Alaska, the biggest problem the Exxon had was cleaning everything up. The oil company spent a total of 2.1 billion dollars to get rid of the oil.

Today, with over 2.5 million gallons of oil gushing out of the ground every day, both the federal government and BP need to get their act together.

Despite many safety violations, BP should not be the only party blamed for the continuation of the spill. BP should concentrate on capping the leaking well and stopping any more oil from entering the ocean. The government— more specifically, the administration— should concentrate on the clean-up at hand. If leadership is not exercised, the oil will surely reach our beaches. President Obama should be a fixture in the Gulf right now and should facilitate whatever the States and Coast Guard need, rather than play golf or go to sporting events. As a leader he should take charge of the situation in the Gulf Coast, or appoint someone who will. The environment and people are being hurt more than ever, and as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said, “Every day that this oil sits is one more day that more of our marsh dies.”

When Katrina hit New Orleans, the media and the people attacked former President Bush for not doing enough to help those affected. Obama should get the same treatment, if not a more severe one. In May, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said, “We are going to stay on this and stay on BP until this gets done and this gets done the right way.” It has been over 65 days, and the situation has not been pacified. Rather, it continues to rage.

There is no Band-aid or easy way to clot this hemophilia. But one thing is certain— leadership is necessary, and the blame game and void tough talk will not cap the well or clean the oil.

Nigeria is the most populous African country with a population of more than 150 million people. There are 250 to 400 ethnic groups among this population which makes Nigeria one of the most diverse African nations.  It is almost evenly dived between Muslims and Christians and with more than 78 million Muslims, Nigeria has the sixth largest Islamic population in the world.

Along the dividing line between the Muslim north and Christian south of Nigeria, live different distinct ethnic groups such as Berom, Hausa-Fulani, Jukun, Kofya, Tiv and more. With so much diversity concentrated in one region, conflict tends to arise.

On Sunday, March 7, members of the Muslim Hausa-Fulani ethnic group attacked Christian villages that mainly consisted of members of the Berom ethnic group. They also stole about 120 cattle from the villages. At least 200 Christian villagers were left dead when groups of men with guns, machetes and knives invaded their villages.

Other agencies gave higher death tolls. The president of the nongovernmental agency Civil Rights Congress, Sani Shehu, reported that 485 people died. A Christian leader, who took part in a mass burial of 67 bodies in one of the invaded, towns said about 375 people were dead or still missing.

The victims lived in the villages of Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Ratsat, about 6 miles south from the state capital, Jos.

More than 160 people have been arrested in connection with the massacre. Forty one will be charged with homicide while the others will be charged with arson, possession of firearms, and rioting.

John Onaiyekan, the archbishop of Abuja, told Vatican Radio that the violence is a result of a dispute over access to natural resources, not based on religion.

However, according to CNN, Human Rights Watch said the attacks by Muslims were in retaliation for previous attacks against Islamic communities and the theft of cattle from herdsmen. In January, at least 150 Muslims were killed during an attack on the town of Kuru Karama, south of Jos. Most of the town’s homes dispersed in flames.

While such violence often creates a division between Christians and Muslims, ethnic, social, and economic problems are also reasons for violence in Nigeria and other African countries.

Many Christians in Nigeria believe Hausa Muslims seek to seize political control and impose Sharia law. They fear the possibility of an extremist Islamist agenda.

On the contrary, Muslims in Nigeria believe the Plateau State government wishes to drive them out of certain areas.

According to BBC News, Police Commissioner, Ikechukwu Aduba, said that he believes the violence among Nigerians of different religious and ethnic backgrounds will last for a long time.

Aside from the religious dispute, Nigeria is dealing with guerrilla attacks against the government because of oil. Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of crude oil to the United States and the world’s eighth largest oil exporter. Ninety-five percent of the country’s export earnings come from gas and oil trade.  Its oil and gas reserves are located in the Niger Delta region, where most of the Ijaw, the country’s fourth largest ethnic group, resides.

The Ijaw formed MEND in 2006 because they believe that a larger proportion of Nigeria energy wealth should be spent on their communities. Although most of the country’s energy wealth stems from the Niger Delta region, the Ijaw continue to live in poverty. As a result of frequent oil spills and the burning of natural gas, the Ijaw also live in a poor environmental region.

Under Nigeria’s 1960 and 1963 constitution, 50 percent of oil revenue was returned to the state where the oil was derived. Under the 1999 constitution, however, only 13 percent of revenue was and still is returned to the state where oil is derived. The Ijaw community wants at least 20 to 25 percent of the revenue to return to them as well as control of resources located in their region. Since their demands were ignored by the government, the MEND succeeded in cutting Nigeria’s oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day in 2006.

More recently, on March 15,  MEND planted car bombs around the Nigerian government’s building in the city of Warri. Although no officials were hurt, the bombing served as the Ijaw’s first claim to an attack since ending a ceasefire with the government in January.

The government has failed to put an end to MEND attacks because various oil facilities in their region make easy targets for the attackers who are familiar with the dense waterways, swamps, and mangroves of their wetland region. These make easy escape routes for militants. Also, the government believes that retaliating against the Ijaw communities will only make the crisis worse.

Before his death, President Umaru Yar’Adua provided amnesty to militants who agreed to lay down their arms. The MEND turned down his offer.

According to CNN, Roake Akinola, an analyst at Control Risks West Africa said, “Because many people feel disillusioned economically and as long as they have those sentiments — I think the risk of radical uprisings in places like northern Nigeria and certainly southern Nigeria in the Delta will continue regardless of who is in power.”

Violent outbreaks in Nigeria are assured to continue especially with the loss of a president who was unable to put an end to religious and economic disputes during his three years in power.

Although the ideas expressed in each commentary belonged to the individual authors and not Eastside itself, we are aware that people’s feelings were hurt because of some of the content which they deemed inappropriate.

As a result, dissent has arisen amongst certain members of the student body, and for that we are sorry.  We believe that it is in the best interest of Cherry Hill East and the Cherry Hill community to remove both online commentaries from Eastside Online so that further disruptions do not arise.

We hope that you accept our apologies.

Mr. Greg Gagliardi, Eastside Advisor

Devon Braunstein, Managing Editor

Rob Incollingo, Editor-in-Chief

Amanda Michelson, Editor-in-Chief

Sari Soffer, Editor-in-Chief

Although the ideas expressed in each commentary belonged to the individual authors and not Eastside itself, we are aware that people’s feelings were hurt because of some of the content which they deemed inappropriate.

As a result, dissent has arisen amongst certain members of the student body, and for that we are sorry.  We believe that it is in the best interest of Cherry Hill East and the Cherry Hill community to remove both online commentaries from Eastside Online so that further disruptions do not arise.

We hope that you accept our apologies.

Mr. Greg Gagliardi, Eastside Advisor

Devon Braunstein, Managing Editor

Rob Incollingo, Editor-in-Chief

Amanada Michelson, Editor-in-Chief

Sari Soffer, Editor-in-Chief

Although the ideas expressed in each commentary belonged to the individual authors and not Eastside itself, we are aware that people’s feelings were hurt because of some of the content which they deemed inappropriate.

As a result, dissent has arisen amongst certain members of the student body, and for that we are sorry.  We believe that it is in the best interest of Cherry Hill East and the Cherry Hill community to remove both online commentaries from Eastside Online so that further disruptions do not arise.

We hope that you accept our apologies.

Mr. Greg Gagliardi, Eastside Advisor

Devon Braunstein, Managing Editor

Rob Incollingo, Editor-in-Chief

Amanda Michelson, Editor-in-Chief

Sari Soffer, Editor-in-Chief

This video here from The Guardian gives an encapsulated summary of the incident. In brief, a slum which houses a couple thousand impoverished Brazilians was bulldozed by the state, while riot police beat, gassed, and ran off its residents. The land that the slum was built on is “owned” by a corporation, which the state felt was more than enough precedent to forcibly evict hundreds of families into homelessness. I put that word in quotation marks because the land only existed as such in bureaucratic legal thought; the hard truth of the matter is that the land was home to these people—as horrible as that is.

The illustrative nature of the event lies in the ramifications. Keeping in mind the whole horrible history of Brazil—colonial wars, slavery, racism, corruption, on and on—as disgusting as it is true, slum annihilations are not exactly out of the ordinary, or really for the world entirely. In fact, not one hundred years ago they existed up in North America in much the same way. Remember the scene in The Grapes of Wrath when the cops burn the refugee camp? That wasn’t exactly fantasy; during the Depression, America’s Golden Age of Slums, our own police were pioneers of the practice of clearing out the poor, en masse, by force.

But today, America’s slums are much more intransigent places. It isn’t exactly easy for corporations to order police to bulldoze in inner cities as it is in a corrugated tin shantytown. Instead, the unwanted poor are now forced out of areas attractive to wealthier entities more slowly than previous days, and through economic means—gentrification, usually. In Latin America, however, the divides and powers of society are so much barer, and raw force is no mere acquaintance of the plutocratic elite. In Brazil, a country where the corruption in government, business, and policing is as much a fixture of the political landscape as the Amazon rainforest is of the geography, it is simple to evict the poor from their homes. When a party of rich and influential men wants the poor kicked out, the cops strap the boots on and it’s as straightforward as that. Will politicians clamor to stop the destruction? They might run their mouths off depending on how liberal their affiliation is, but meaningful litigation is a permanently spectral prospect.

So it was, essentially, throughout Latin America—except not so much anymore. There was a very recent time in history when that would have been true, when situations like Brazil’s (in which the wealthy live in gated communities guarded by mercenaries and the poor shelter in slums under the guns of the police) were all that was to be found. Still, such situations are commonplace. Yet things have been moving away from that grim paradigm, and in a much better direction. The disenfranchised poor, the slum dwellers and working class of Latin America , have against great odds constituted through blood, sweat, and community a power to call their own, with which to defend themselves from these kinds of historically prevailing forces of greed and ruthlessness. Yes, it is socialism. In fact, the best parts of it are communism. There are even heavy strains of anarchism involved, too. Does that scare you? If it does, you’ve been watching too much News Corporation programming because there are some beautiful opportunities—for us and for the whole world—being opened by the struggles taking place down south.

The leftist movements which have been surging to prominence throughout Latin America have been working wonders towards hauling Latin American society out of the centuries-old quagmire of violent injustice, towards a much more equitable and peaceful existence. Leftist parties, guided by leadership not only from prominent leaders like Rafael Correa, Hugo Chavez, and Evo Morales, but from the community councils, industrial councils, and other grassroots bodies comprised of the same once-disenfranchised people who now are working through direct democracy to establish control over their own lives, have formed an international community called “The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America”, or ALBA (meaning “dawn”). It is a project of cooperation between states that have undergone the political revolution that has brought socialist power—the united power of the working-class communities—into dominance over the formerly dominating force of foreign capital and the wealthy elite. In Venezuela, slum-dwellers have their own councils that cooperate with the socialist government in order to plan improvement projects, working away the slum by building healthy, economically sound communities from the inside-out. In Bolivia, the indigenous people no longer face the political and economic discrimination that plagued them under the old foreign-backed elite. In each of the ALBA countries, the old power structures are being transformed as society morphs into a new paradigm, one in which the state and its power is to check the wealthy and enable the poor to improve their conditions through cooperation rather than crush the poor to make room for the projects of the wealthy. Large projects of nationalization and redistribution of resources have been undertaken in the countries—for example, revenue from natural gas in Bolivia is no longer concentrated in corporate hands or in the grasp of a foreign bank, but is retained by the state and used at home to fund the community projects, mass infrastructure, healthcare, etc.

On a broader level, the international alliance has sought to create a Bank of the South, an alternative to the World Bank and IMF which would not take advantage of the poorer countries of the continent by keeping them in eternal massive debt to the richer countries of the northern hemisphere. Instead, it would be built on a foundational directive of working to facilitate the building of a regional economic partnership. This partnership would not focus on protecting the interests of mammoth foreign corporations and their bought-and-sold governments through unrestricted trade, but would allow the ALBA countries, and Latin America as a whole, to initiate fair-trade policies, which would allocate the most wealth to the working poor who need it, and who facilitated by their socialist democratic councils could put it to use in the way they see most fit.

As we see in Columbia today, the old paradigm which ALBA strives against is based on military might serving the purposes of the corporate elite. As we also see in Columbia today, it is the elite of the American federal government, and of American corporations, who go a long way towards bringing the hammer of armed violence down on the Latin American people. When it comes to the old free-trade agreements, administrations of both of our gargantuan parties, Democrat and Republican, have always been so eager to expand and defend them with violence. How can we, as responsible American citizens, come to terms with our country’s history of military oppression through “interventions,” coups, and corporate manipulation of our neighbors to the south? We can start by forcing a change in Obama’s (and Hillary Clinton’s) policies today. In Columbia, the unions and leftist movements are suppressed with violence by a government backed by and armed by our very own government. Secret police, in the name of the “War on Drugs,” are reinforced by U.S. mercenaries and official military in exercising complete forceful control over the population of Columbia. When slum-dwellers try to organize, when factory workers try to organize, when corporate power is challenged, the legal machinery of the free-trade agreements kicks in, and we funnel money and weapons to a corrupt state which has been responsible for kidnapping and murdering unknown multitudes of leftist activists. Is it any surprise that there is a revolutionary uprising against the Columbian state going on right now? When the slums are patrolled by American-armed soldiers and any attempt to improve one’s own life in the ghettoes is met by violent suppression funded by the cash of the gated elite who run a country without the citizens’ consent—well, what would you want to do? But of course the FARC is smeared with the brush of “terrorism.”

In fact, there is a lot of smearing going on—most of it by the media megaliths in our country. Hugo Chavez is a military dictator running a police state, according to the talking heads; socialism is evil and there’s no more to it than that, according to professional political manipulators in both major Parties and in religious institutions and schools. People here tend to be naïve enough to think that our government doesn’t engage in active media manipulation around the globe. We fund our own Middle Eastern media network to counter Al-Jazeera, if you didn’t know. We invented Voice of America as our state-run media agency to broadcast conservative-capitalist propaganda into countries whose leading movements we wished to topple. And so, when Hugo Chavez shuts down the voice of counterrevolutionary manipulation in his country, which seeks to re-instate the old world of the violent rule of capital, he is of course (to Fox News, ABC, CNN, and B.S. Network) a dictator. Nevermind the fact that Rupert Murdoch himself categorized grassroots American journalists who take a critical view of American foreign policy as “terrorists,” which is coming from a man who believes in absolute draconian, authoritarian treatment for “terrorists.”

In Latin America they are wrangling with a beast that has terrorized their world for centuries. We must be supportive of them in their struggle. We must initiate our own struggles. The softer end of that same beast manifests in our homes as crass commercialism, the banality of pop culture, everything amoral and fundamentally rancid which infects our relations with each other and haunts us here in our minds.  It is the same shopping-mall mindset which deceives, beguiles and deludes us into supporting and enabling through passivity a campaign of monstrosities which is nothing less than a crusade of murderous pillaging undertaken in our unwitting name. Wake up before we miss our chance. Manuel Zelaya joined ALBA; Pentagon-trained military goons forced him out and violently overtook the country, with Hillary Clinton’s maniacally-grinning blessing and Barack Obama’s facetious passive-aggression. Every free-trade government, that is, corporate-run elitist military state, which we sign defense agreements with, means another disaster for humanity. Most Americans have no clue about our government’s campaigns in Latin America. Most would say they don’t care. But I don’t buy that for a second. Nobody is too sedate to stop a murder. You are not too cold for action.

Workers in South Korea, bastion of East Asian capitalism, lost their factory jobs. Occupying the factory for a short period in protest of their sudden launch into joblessness and imminent poverty to allow factory owners to increase profits, the workers lived off of scant food and water. After some chemically-based siege tactics, armed police forced their way into the factory and cheerfully dismantled another terroristic roadblock to unfettered trade.

Workers in China, bastion of 21^st-century “Communism” (Mandarin translation: “$$$”), were informed that they were to lose their jobs when their state-owned company was sold to a private entity. Upon learning that the “private entity,” an astoundingly wealthy Chinese businessman in a land supposedly rid of such capitalistic and exploitative creatures, was holding a meeting on the premises, thousands of them stormed over and killed him with their bare hands. Amazingly, there were found to be yet more super-rich businessmen in the People’s Republic to take his place, and investigations have uncovered the presence of these alien bourgeoisie in the highest levels of the Chinese bureaucracy. Further inquiry is pending.

In Peru, a free trade agreement disenfranchised an entire Indian population from its land, which was to be utilized for corporate means. Peruvian police entered to forcibly suppress demonstrators. Their guns and batons were met with spears. The potential of Indian spears being utilized in some sort of terrorist attack is still undergoing consideration by the Peruvian military and police.

The government of Israel is refusing to halt the construction of settlements in the West Bank. It endorsed a domestic housing plan which involves demographically separating residents of Israel—Arabs in one town, Orthodox Jews in another, secular Jews in another. The Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is a man who continues to push for the removal of citizenship for any Arab citizen who doesn’t agree to carry special identification, sign an oath written by members of his party (whose favored chant at political rallies and soccer games alike is “Death to the Arabs!”) and agree to the aforementioned housing plan. Political activity by Arabs would be discouraged as treason, and Mr. Lieberman has already proposed that Arab members of the Knesset (Parliament) be executed under charges of treason for their political activities—that is, the fact that they exist at all.

There has also been much infighting among Israel’s Jewish citizens. State police have cracked down on riots by Orthodox citizens who are impatient with, among many things (including religious-municipal issues in Jerusalem), the peace process. It has not been abandoned for war yet, and this is strictly out of line with their clearly publicized demands for the government, which will continue to be vocalized at soccer games and political rallies for Mr. Lieberman’s party. Israeli police recently recommended that Mr. Lieberman be indicted on corruption charges after concluding a years-long investigation.

Haitian police tear-gassed a crowd of thousands of workers asking for a raise in minimum wage. The monsters had the nerve to plead that their children are starving, and two dollars a day is simply not enough. The U.S.-backed government of Haiti, installed in a coup under the Bush regime (which aided the takeover), apparently believes that the food shortage and extreme poverty, wealth gap, and disenfranchisement of the working class from the political process is no excuse for (terroristically!) disrespecting the glorious balance of power maintained in the corporate republic. Men made rich by friends in the higher-ups of the American government live in gated, guarded suburbs while the starving…starve. It’s hard to even get too sarcastic about that one; that’s just shameful.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still in power in Iran. Widespread repression will continue. The rainbows, rivers of chocolate, and corporate resorts and headquarters which were all in place for deployment upon Mousavi’s angelic ascension to office will be kept in cold storage in a U.S. military facility in northern Virginia until the next election.

North Korea continues to hibernate until the global socialist spring thaw, when it will have more than two allies. Western correspondents continue to gather at South Korean side of the border, reportedly sticking out their tongues and even “mooning” at North Koreans before retiring for the day to plush hotels in order to sip lattes and Tweet.

There’s still a war in Iraq, but it’s going splendidly. Freedom and democracy (translations: “lack of corporate regulations” and “two indistinguishable parties ruled by plutocrats”) are flourishing, and in ten years the country will be a paradise. (Translation: “Tax haven”). Some have died, but rest assured their deaths were heroic, took place in slow-motion\ and didn’t really hurt that much. God bless.

A rising tide of popular criticism of both capitalism and the American political climate has kept Loyal Patriots worried this summer. Many books disparaging of mass de-politicization of the American people (through such means as, say, celebrity-worship) and even more critical of the role of large banking trusts in the workings of our federal and state governments have proliferated at unprecedented levels. Did you know Michael Jackson died? Great, well do you know who the Secretary of Labor is? Swell.

Major news networks required protests outside of their offices before they would grant any significant coverage of the single-payer healthcare option.

Rupert Murdoch categorized grassroots journalists as being essentially information-based terrorists. Meanwhile, Hugo Chavez’s crackdown on capitalist-backed media antagonism in his country is assailed as a gross infringement on the right to free speech…by Rupert Murdoch’s organizations, which have been working actively to undermine the Chavez government through information campaigns…American corporate interest in South America is intertwined with the interests of the major media conglomerates…airports in the region have begun screening passengers for spears.

Columbia has closed an agreement which will bring more American military to its bases, in the name of the “War on Drugs.” Columbia, whose government is a staunch ally of capitalism in the region, has vowed to put a bullet through the stem of every last coca plant in the region—after it’s done with those darn trade unionists and other communistic, un-Christian sodomite rabble. Obama-approved.

While the U.S. failed to witness a successful coup in Iran, it succeeded in Honduras. Military officers trained by the Pentagon overthrew the democratically elected Manuel Zelaya, for “threatening to violate the constitution” by proposing an amendment to be voted upon by the legislature. Also, he was a Red jerk who dared oppose corporate interest in the region. While Obama’s administration tried to pressure into collapse Ahmadinejad’s elected government in the name of democracy, its lapdogs overthrew another one all on their own. Well-trained, aren’t they?

Hillary Clinton just recently celebrated American trade policy in Africa. Please see my article on the conflict in Kivu to learn all about that gloriousness. The forces of the world market are manifest in profoundly violent butchery all across the cradle of humanity. Oh, Hillary, you card.

War is great fun, and very good for the soul and the nation. I encourage you all to join the army and participate in it for the glory of your country and the security of democracy. That’s all for now.

Yellowstone. The mere name conjures up images of sprawling forests, grandiose mountains, and other startling creations of nature. Unfortunately, many Americans have never gotten the opportunity to visit this great national treasure, and those who do often find themselves strapped for time, limited to only 2-3 days. Naturally, these people want to be able to visit the must-sees, the most spectacular sights. But what exactly are the must-sees? To help with this decision, here are a few suggestions.

1.)   Old Faithful Geyser: The most famous and most popular of all the geysers in Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful is definitely a must-see on any visitor’s list. While not the tallest or most powerful geyser (that title belongs to Steamboat Geyser, also located in Yellowstone), it is the most powerful geyser that erupts on a predictable basis. Wait times between eruptions differ, but average around 90 minutes. The actual eruption time is also subject to change, lasting anywhere from 1.5 minutes to 5 minutes in total. After checking the estimated time of eruption in the Visitors’ Center nearby, be sure to avoid the crowds and grab a seat early to get a good view.

2.)   Midway Geyser Basin: Though one of the smaller basins found in Yellowstone, the Midway Geyser Basin is nonetheless home to a number of spectacular sights. The Excelsior Geyser, while no longer active as a geyser, is still beautiful as a hot spring. Similarly, the largest hot spring in Yellowstone, the Grand Prismatic Spring, features an array of stunning colors that will be sure to wow any visitor.

3.)   Mammoth Hot Springs: Also known as the park headquarters, Mammoth Hot Springs is home to a slew of historical buildings that will be sure to pique any history buff’s interest. The Mammoth Hot Springs Terrace is also a must-see, featuring a series of terraces created by the constant trickle of water. Keep an eye out for elk grazing on the lawns of the nearby Mammoth Village.

4.)   The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone: Though less famous than its similarly titled counterpart in Arizona, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is nonetheless breathtaking. Featuring gorgeous views of the canyon and the famous waterfall named Lower Falls, the Grand Canyon is a definite must-see. Be prepared to spend several hours exploring the full-scope of the Grand Canyon. Also, take the hike down to the edge of Lower Falls. The view next to the waterfall is truly a sight to behold.

If time is left over after Yellowstone National Park, be sure to also visit Yellowstone’s neighbor park to the south, Grand Teton National Park. The mountain ranges seem impossibly beautiful, and should definitely not be missed.